The Division Update 1.5 & Survival: Now Available on PTS, New Details & Preliminary Patch Notes Released

The developers of Tom Clancy’s The Division have hosted a new Special Report on Twitch this Monday. Earlier than expected and only 2 weeks after the release of Update 1.4, the main topic was the upcoming Update 1.5, including new information of the second major expansion “Survival” as part of the Season Pass.

Survival

Story of Survival

New York is preparing for the most brutal snow storm ever and based on new intel, valuable and for the cure essential antivirals have been located inside the Dark Zone. As an agent of The Division, you have been sent out together with a group of other agents to secure these antivirals.

During the flight to the DZ, your helicopter crashes, you lose your group and your gear is in a very bad shape. That’s where your real mission begins. From the crash site on you will have to fight your way to the Dark Zone, retrieve the antivirals and extract them as well as yourself to safety.

New Game Mode

The new paid DLC introduces a new gameplay mode called Survival, which is offering multiplayer action with up to 24 players, either in a PvP or PvE enabled environment once the Base of Operations is unlocked.

Because the scarcity of resources plays a big role in it and every player is going to look for them, even the PvE mode will be some kind of competitive! Integrated Matchmaking allows you to join either in a group, or as solo player.

The whole map of Manhattan will be widely covered with a lot more snow. All players spawn with similar gear at designated locations in the open world to fight their way through the numerous streets to fulfil extractions in the Dark Zone.

As mentioned before, every player starts with a pistol, a hazmat suit, no skills, no first aid and similar gear consisting of green items. Moreover there is no mini-map.

Extreme weather conditions like the snow storm in the original Survival DLC Teaser and lowered visibility will make it very difficult to progress. In order to survive, wearing clothes with protection against the cold is recommended. Carrying more pieces of that kind probably increases your chance to stay alive.

The closer you get to the center of the DZ, the tougher the enemy encounters become and the extraction’s flare will attract the Hunters, another faction that will be introduced with the new DLC.

Similar to H1Z1 or DayZ,

acquiring better gear,

gathering supplies

and unlocking skills

are essential to succeed. However, the cold or enemies are not your only problem. A new survival-mode typical mechanic is also the demand for food and water you will have to scavenge every now and then.

Hunger: Impacts health regeneration

Thirst: Impacts vision

Additional Hideouts, which will be scattered around the map, also help and allow you to craft new items. Crafting basically plays an important role when it comes to improving your gear for the next fight.

When you die, the current session is over unless another agent revives you.

Last but not least, the rewards. If you manage to reach the goal and extract the antivirals, you can expect to see a stats-board about your run and loot divided into 5 stages as well as lots of XP. Even if you aren’t successful, you will receive the one or other item depending on your progress.

Update 1.5

World Tier 5 & Gear Score 256

A new fifth World Tier bracket (requiring 230+ GS) will be added, including NPCs with level 34. In addition, the maximum Gear Score will be raised to 256. Furthermore, Heroic Incursions will only be available in the highest World Tier 5.

Named Gear Items

Named Gear items have been implemented in the game. Starting with one piece per gear slot, every item will come with a unique Gear Talent. These new items will only drop in World Tier 5 or in Survival Game Mode.

[Gloves] Skulls MC gloves: Increased damage when no gear set bonuses are active.

[Chestpiece] Barrett’s bulletproof: Powerful bonuses when skills are on cooldown.

[Backpack] NinjaBike messenger bag: Less DZ loot and DZ XP lost when dying in the Dark Zone.

4 New High End Named Weapons

Besides the introduction of Named Gear items and also a couple of new weapons you might want to look up in the attached patch notes below, also 4 new High End Named Weapons will find their way into the game with the next update:

Golden Rhino

Urban MDR Assault Rifle

Tommy Gun

Thompson M1928

PvP Changes

The Enemy Armor Damage attribute, which turns into a Major one in the next update and Stagger on Shotguns will function in PvP. According to the patch notes, the damage calculation in PvP ignores a percentage of the target’s armor equal to one third of the shooter’s Enemy Armor Damage. PvP players will probably have to rethink certain gear compositions as the attribute will be available on masks, backpacks, kneepads and holsters.

Misc

Various balancing changes including Gear Set stat adjustments as well as Skill and Vendor changes will accomplish the plan of the developers. Keep in mind that these are not the final patch notes and that you will have a chance again to share your opinion in the official PTS forums.

PTS is Back Online

Meanwhile, the new update (1.5) can be already tested by PC players on the PTS, while The Division’s Season Pass is required to unlock and play the also included Survival DLC.

Patch Notes

Expansion 2: Survival

Please note that you must own the Survival DLC to gain access to this content.Survival mode enabled More information on the mode will be added here.

Update 1.5

Game changes

Added World Tier 5 bracket (230+ GS)

Enemy NPCs are level 34.

Maximum Gear Score raised to 256.

Heroic Incursions are now available in Tier 5 only.

Named Gear items have been implemented in the game. One piece is available for each Gear Slot and each one comes with a unique Talent. Named Gear items can only be dropped in World Tier 5 or in Survival game mode.

[Gloves] Skulls MC gloves: Increased damage when no gear set bonuses are active.

[Chestpiece] Barrett’s bulletproof: Powerful bonuses when skills are on cooldown.

[Backpack] NinjaBike messenger bag: Less DZ loot and DZ XP lost when dying in the Dark Zone.

Enemy Armor Damage now functions in PVP: damage calculation in PvP ignores a percentage of the target’s armor equal to one third of the shooter’s Enemy Armor Damage.

UpdateEnemy Armor Damage is now a Major bonus instead of a Minor bonus. With enemy Armor Damage now applying to PvP, this will create an interesting situation where players will have to decide between increasing their Armor or Armor Damage.

It can now roll on Backpacks, Masks, Kneepads, Holsters and Gear Mods.

Roll values have been lowered to compensate for the fact that it can roll on more item types.

Rolls on existing Kneepads will be scaled to appropriate values. Note that Enemy Armor Damage will still be considered as a Minor bonus on existing Kneepads.

Enemy Armor Damage will be removed from existing Masks and replaced with another minor bonus.

Stagger now functions in PvP: high-stagger weapons (Shotguns and Marksman rifles primarily) will now cause the target’s aim to flinch.

NPCs now have chances to drop crafting materials. Chances to drop higher quality increases with World Tiers.

Season Pass Open World Supply Drops will now scale with World Tier. Opening a supply drop in World Tier 1 will reward with Gear Score 163, 182 in world tier 2, etc.

Items in the Scavenger crate in the Base of Operations will now scale with World Tier.

Vendors will now scale to player’s Gear Score, independently from the World Tier they’re in. This means that the Gear Score and currency value of goods they sell will adapt to the player’s Gear Score.

We have adjusted the Credits and Phoenix Credits rewards for Main Missions, High Value Targets and Incursions to better scale with World Tier. This overall results in an increase starting from World Tier 4 and above.

Weapons

All Weapon types

Hip fire now has stronger recoil than aiming down sights. The strength of this effect varies between weapon types. From most impacted to least impacted: Marksman Rifles, LMGs, Assault Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns, Pistols.